Derby County have been held to a goalless draw by East Midlands rivals Nottingham Forest to stretch their winless Championship run to seven matches.

The Rams, reduced to 10 men for the final nine minutes of the match at the City Ground, are now fifth in the table and effectively out of the automatic promotion race.

Forest are unbeaten against Derby in five home league encounters, meanwhile, but they never really showed enough to earn maximum points in manager Aitor Karanka's first taste of this high-profile fixture.

The latest tussle between these two sides started in a lively enough manner, without many chances being created in the opening 44 minutes or so of the contest.

Andreas Weimann got in the first meaningful shot half an hour in and loanee Lee Tomlin, who has had a hand in five goals in his last three outings, came close with his attempt from 30 yards.

Derby had more reason to question the goalless nature of the first half, though, as David Nugent's low drive was kept out by Costel Pantilimon and Tom Lawrence was denied on the line by a combination of Pantilimon and Tendayi Darikwa.

Pantilimon then got across to stop Lawrence's inswinging corner from crossing the line, with the half's only real entertainment being kept for the closing stages.

Forest enjoyed more of the ball in the early stages of the second 45 and were nearly ahead through Ben Brereton, who nodded over when picked out by Ben Osborne.

The momentum that the Reds had slowly been building came to very little, though, and County themselves offered minimal threat in the final third.

There was a chance for Forest to snatch a winner late on after Tom Huddlestone tripped Tomlin to earn a second yellow, but the match ended in a stalemate to see the points shared.

NOTTINGHAM FOREST (4-2-3-1): Pantilimon; Figueiredo, Fox, Watson, Dariwka; Colback, Cash; Osborn, Tomlin, Lolley (Dowell 78'); Brereton (Murphy 85')

DERBY COUNTY (4-2-3-1): Carson; Forsyth, Keogh, Davies, Wisdom; Johnson, Huddlestone; Anya (Palmer 66'), Lawrence (Hanson 84'), Weimann; Nugent (Jerome 66')